Top 10 promising MSP Trends to keep on the radar in 2016

Do you want to double your profit this year? Have you worked on your unique selling proposition for this year? What would be the competitive advantage that you would be providing to your client this year? And finally what would be your service and sales strategies for this year?
As an MSP you have been in the business for quite a while and living in an ever changing work environment. Whether it is introduction of a new technology or change in work habit or usage of devices, a managed service provider cannot afford to miss on any opportunity. Such costly mistakes can leave you behind the eight ball and force you to play catch up for months or years may be.
With a new year, now is the perfect time to analyze the top trend forecast for MSP for 2016 and strategize accordingly.
After all, the game is all about jumping on the right trend at the right time…isn’t it?

Trend 1: Making the most out of BYOD policies.
Over the year, many organizations have implemented Bring Your Own Device policies and have allowed their employees to work remotely, this trend in likely to continue in 2016 as well. However, managing the risk associated with BYOD is quite a task.
So, the MSP that help customers develop BYOD policies can offer protection against myriad cyber threats.

Trend 2: EMM tools: An essential ingredient for MSP’s  success
Enterprise Mobility Management, or EMM, has become essential for many organizations. Without question, mobility has not only enhanced employee productivity and accessibility, it has fundamentally altered enterprise communication structures around the globe.
In 2016, MSPs that helps their customers identify and understand their EMM needs can ensure that their customers get the support they deserve.

 
Trend 3: Two-factor authentication and identify and access management is likely to grow this year as well.
Rising security and digital identity breach have compelled enterprises to tighten security measures. Hence, Two-factor authentication and identity and access management are becoming increasingly important for Managed Service Providers and their customers, a trend is likely to continue this year as well.

Trend 4: High emphasis will be given on Data, Application, and Infrastructure protection regardless of location.
Greater emphasis will continue to be placed on protecting critical data, application, and infrastructure regardless of whether they are in the cloud or on-premise.
Two areas to be aware of are:

• Encryption
• Redundancy

Trend 5: New feature to be included on RMM Platforms
Continuum, LabTech Software, and other remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform providers bolstered their offerings this year. And in 2016, new features could be incorporated into various RMM platforms to ensure these offerings provide additional value to MSPs and their customers.

Trends 6: Cloud backup will become a priority.
As companies cope with the growing amount of corporate information being generated every day, they face a daunting truth: without their data, they have no business. That’s why it’s so critical to have a modern and dependable system in place to safeguard valuable business information, cloud backup services market is growing, and MSPs that deliver these services could provide their customers with data protection for years to come.

Trend 7: Compliance as a service could become increasingly valuable.
Meeting regulatory requirements is key in a variety of industries, which could make compliance-as-a-service a viable add-on for MSPs in 2016.
Offering this service to customers could help MSPs extend their reach into financial services, healthcare and other highly regulated industries.

Trend 8: Managed service providers will become more popular amongst small and midsized business.
IT support services provided by MSPs have proven their importance for small and medium sized business having limited resources in terms of time and skill sets to manage complicated office technology- considering the rate at which technology changes.
To fully understand the implementation and use of contracted products (and contracts! ) requires a high level of expertise, which an MSP can provide – Given the years of experience along with the technical knowledge to meet the requirement of SMEs
Hence, the trend is likely to grow this year as well.

Trend 9: Private and Public cloud will be managed separately.
Because the colocation market has been commoditized, public cloud providers are experiencing difficulty within the market. To diversify their service offerings, they are splitting up the management of private and public clouds.
Current colocation businesses have begun to get their engineers certified for public clouds from a managed services perspective. They are also looking at adding their own private managed services within their own data centers.
In other words, their survival strategy is to transition from a commoditized colocation provider to a hybrid (private/public) managed services provider with various services within their data centers.

Trend 10: Third-Party Offering –NOC services
MSPs need to “work smarter instead of harder”, with low-touch, high-value, high-margin solutions in their product portfolios that can make more money without having to spend on any valuable additional resources or infrastructure.

Considering these predictions, 2016 could be a big year for managed service providers and their clients.